


These New York City Streets get Colder

by ham-didnt-die-for-this (Mazriaz)



Series: The Lams AU with the sticky notes [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, how do i always manage to squeeze in tjeff, the babes learn how to communicate, the one with the sticky notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-04 01:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5315798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazriaz/pseuds/ham-didnt-die-for-this
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He looked over at Alex and laughed.<br/>“What?” Alex said, indignantly.<br/>“Cher, there’s a sticky note stuck to your forehead.”<br/>“There’s a what?!”<br/>“A bright green sticky note attached to your forehead.” Alex nearly slapped himself in his haste to grab the sticky note. He tore it off his forehead and looked at it. He read through it quickly and blushed furiously. It started in his face and worked its way down his neck.<br/>“What? What has John said to make you that lovely shade of crimson? Share with the class, Ham.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	These New York City Streets get Colder

**Author's Note:**

> this is going to be ongoing apparently 
> 
> hope u like it, i love these small eggs  
> translations will b in the end notes

This was not the first time Alexander had contemplated getting a one way ticket back to the blessedly warm and humid Caribbean, nor would it be the last. He lived in New York City, it was bound to happen with the freezing winters that reached negative temperatures. He barely like the 50 degree winters in Puerto Rico how the fuck was he supposed to deal with -3 degrees Fahrenheit ?His breath fogged out in front of him as he walked down the street. The sky was dark and hidden by a combination of clouds and city smog, threatening to condense and come down in sheets of grimy snow. As of yet, the sky held, and so did Alexander’s resolve to get back to his dorm and hide under the fifty thousand blankets piled on top of his tiny bed until April. Since he couldn’t do that, he settled for stuffing his gloved hands into his pockets, hiding his face deeper into the thick, woolen scarf Eliza had made for him, and walking faster down the New York City streets.

The political science major debate he was walking home from was incredible. He didn’t originally plan to even speak, just observe the atmosphere, but some chucklefuck thought it was a good idea to start talking about shit about immigrants and his blood boiled at the way they treated people like him as trash. He, of course, dismantled the speaker’s argument and spent the rest of the meeting jittery with the residual adrenaline coursing through his veins. Before he came to America, nobody would have listened to his political rants, nobody would have set up the coffee shop for a political forum among college students, nobody would have glanced twice at the short Caribbean man with big dreams. Here, though, thirty two people stared at him with rapt attention as he developed his intricate arguments against the conservative party, passionately smashing his opponent’s previous argument. He lived off the energy flowing through the room as he revved up for a political revolution. It was over now, sadly, but he now had twenty one new Facebook friends and three internship offers from some professors who attended the student run debate. Thoughts on his argument tumbled around his brain as he made the trek back to his dorm.

By the time he got to his dorm, though, he was chilled to the bone and had no inclination to lay down in his twin sized bed alone, so he went to John’s dorm. His boyfriend was basically a space heater and was probably up for the glorious-ness of Ron Swanson and co. He knocked on the door before using his key to enter. He, Gilbert, Herc, and John all had keys to each other’s dorms and used them liberally, much to their roommates’ dismay. John was sprawled out on his bed, eyes closed and a peaceful look on his face. Alex thought he was asleep, until he saw one of his eyes crack open and a bright smile spread over his face.

“Hey Ham”

“Hey, if you want I can go, and let you sleep-”

“Nah I’d rather be with you, c’mere” John said, holding his arms out, making grabby hands at Alex. Alex obliged and sat down next to John, leaning down and kissing him softly. He must’ve been frigid, because John shivered a little.

“Ham, have you literally been sitting in an ice bath? How are you this cold?” John exclaimed.

“John, we’ve discussed this a million times: I’m a cold-blooded lizard who needs to lay on a rock for four hours in a patch of sunlight every single day. I don’t do well in the cold.” Alex stood up, ignoring John’s snort and shucked off his gloves, scarf, coat, shoes, and jeans, climbing under the covers. As per usual, he snuggled up to his boyfriend, leeching the heat radiating off of him. He stuffed his toes under John’s calves and laughed when he jumped at the sudden coldness.

“I still don’t understand how you’re a literal space heater though. Like, how do you not wake up in a pool of sweat in the mornings?”

“I, unlike somebody I know, don’t bury myself under seven thick, woolen blankets year ‘round. Also, give me your hands.” Alex made a face at him that instantly melted into a  smile when John kissed his knuckles, rubbing them to get the circulation back into his fingers.

“Wanna watch a movie or something?”

“Yeah, what about Parks and Rec?” John grinned at him and grabbed his laptop from where it was leaning against the bed. Alex shimmied closer to John as he booted up his ancient Lenovo.

“Sounds good, dude.”

An episode or two later, Alex was starting to drop off  into the reaches of sleep. John was ready to call it a night and close his laptop when he heard Alex mumble something.

“What, Alex?”

 _“Je t’aime”_ He replied slightly louder before slipping off into sleep. What? What does that even mean? John didn’t speak French. Only English and Spanish. He took four years of Spanish in high school and the regular correspondence with Alex before he moved to America kept him from forgetting it. His school, a private school in sunny South Carolina had a pen pal system set up with Alex’s high school in Puerto Rico. It let John’s classmates brush up on their Spanish and Alex’s classmates brush up on their English. It was a cool system, and had led to him and Alex being friends since freshman year of high school. Despite the distance, their friendship persevered until they both got accepted into Columbia University, where they finally got to meet face to face for the first time. (John didn’t cry. He didn’t, okay. Alex’s shampoo was just really strong, and his eyes got a little watery okay.)

The point still stands that he didn’t know any french. Alex, however, was an overachiever and was fluent in French, Spanish, and English. He and Gil would have entire conversations in a dizzying mix of French and English that probably wouldn’t make sense to anybody else. He decided to wait until Gil came back to their dorm to ask him what Alex had said. It's just… Alex had said it with such certainty and finality that it was going to eat him alive if he didn’t figure out what it was that Alex said.

 

[To Extra Long Baguette:

11:48pm: when r u gonna be back ? ]

 

[To JLo:

11:48pm: omw mon cher, why?]

 

[To Extra Long Baguette:

11:50pm: just checking ]

 

John had nearly resigned himself to just going to sleep and asking Gil in the morning when he heard the snikt of the key in the lock. He jolted up from his half asleep-half awake state nearly pushing Alex off the bed when the door opened.

“ _Bonjour mes chers_. Ah, _le petit lion_ is asleep. How cute.” Gil undressed himself, peeling at least five separate layers of shirts,sweaters, and coats. before putting on sweatpants and a different sweater.

“Hey, uh, Gil? What does uh.. ‘juhh teh aim’ mean?” John hoped the nervousness he felt didn’t translate into his voice. It might’ve because Gil whipped around and gave him a calculating look.

“Did Ham say that to you?”

“Yeah, why? .. is it bad?”

“No, no, of course not, cher. When did he say it to you?” Gil had whipped out his phone and began typing rapid fire to somebody.

“Uh like.. an hour ago? Why? Tell me what it means you baguette!” John’s voice took an edge.

“It means I won 40 bucks! … Mon dieu you really don’t know? I thought you, romantic debonair, would know! It means I love you,”

Shit.

“Shit. Wait.. did you just say you won $40? What the fuck dude have you guys been betting on our love life again?”

“But of course, you egg. I’ll let you in on a secret, Herc thought it’d take way less time for you two lovebirds to confess but I know that the both of you are… how do you say it? Wieners? No, Weenies! that’s it. The both of you are weenies.” John opened his mouth and closed it again after a second. That was.. well, it was true, but. Were they really that predictable? Apparently so.

“Give me fifteen bucks and we’ll call it even,”

“Ten.”

“Twenty.”

“Okay, fine, fifteen it is.” Gil placed the money on John’s desk.

“Wait, when Ham told you, what did you say?’ Came Gil’s curious look. He always was nosey. He was an excellent fit for their squad.

“He uh.. fell asleep. So I didn’t say anything.”

“That quick?”

“He had a debate apparently, you know how tired he gets after those. Also i suspect he hasn’t slept much these past two days. You know, with King’s mountain of pending essays growing larger by the class period.” Gil nodded in agreement. Both boys said goodnight and went to sleep, exhausted.

 

“Lafayette is smarter than me and has better hair.”  Jefferson’s grudging voice prodded Alex out of sleep. He was about to say ‘damn straight’ to him when he looked around and realized it was only him and Gil in the room. Alex checked the time. 8:20am. John must’ve left for his calc 3 class already.

“Lafayette is smarter than me and has better hair.” Oh, that sound byte was Gil’s alarm. He remembered that dare, Gil had challenged Jefferson to a debate covering the topic of foreign aid. The consequences for Gil, had he lost, would’ve been similar to the sound byte playing on Gil’s phone at this very moment. Thank fuck that Gil won, he would’ve been moping for weeks if he’d lost.

 _“Bon matin, cher”_ Logically, he knew that Gil was there, but it was strange hearing words coming from a pile of blankets across the room.

“Morning Gil.” Gil’s head slowly rose from the blankets near the head of the bed, and turned off the alarm. He looked over at Alex and laughed.

“What?” Alex said, indignantly.

“Cher, there’s a sticky note stuck to your forehead.”

“There’s a what?!”

“A bright green sticky note attached to your forehead.” Alex nearly slapped himself in his haste to grab the sticky note. He tore it off his forehead and looked at it. He read through it quickly and blushed furiously. It started in his face and worked its way down his neck.

“What? What has John said to make you that lovely shade of crimson? Share with the class, Ham.” Alex didn’t hear him over the pounding of his heart.

 _“Yo también te amo, idiota, pero la próxima vez me vas a tener que decir en inglés - el mejor novio del mundo._ John is literally the sweetest person alive, how does he exist?” Alex stared at the bright green paper in his hands, slightly in awe. Gil had started getting dressed for class at that point, and glanced over at Alex. If Alex was a cartoon, he would’ve had hearts in his eyes and sparkles surrounding him. He wished to someday have what Alex and John had together.

“I must go now, Greene is going to lecture today and I don’t want to miss a second of it. Au revoir, cher.” Gil grabbed his messenger bag and ruffled Alex’s hair before leaving. Alex laid in bed, in a happy daze, before realizing the implications of the sticky note. The first time he said ‘I love you’ to John out loud was in French, which he didn’t understand and had to figure it out. Whoops. He was going to have to fix that

He reluctantly slipped out of bed and put his clothes back on. He walked back to his dorm, knowing Burr would probably still be asleep and contemplated what he should do for John. He was literally the best boyfriend in existence; he always made sure Alex had slept,eaten, and was happy. He always did small things to comfort him and Alex wanted to be that for him too. After a shower and putting on some of his nicer clothes, he went to John’s favorite cafe, one that served some nearly orgasmic cheesecake brownies and muffins that were to die for. He ordered his and John’s preferred coffees- (double espresso and a caramel macchiato with three packets of sugar) and brownies for each of them. He nibbled at his as he walked across the quad to the math building where John’s calc class was held. The class was supposed to be over in about five minutes so he waited outside the building, scrolling through the morning news and sipping at his coffee.

“Is that for me?” A warm pair of arms wrapped around him and a cold nose found its way to his neck. He jumped a little, he was too engrossed in an article about Marco Rubio’s latest disgusting comments in an interview to notice a bunch of people exiting the building. He smiled at John and kissed his forehead.

“Yeah. So is this.” He pulled out a slightly crumpled sticky note saying ‘I love you, John.’ in his messy scrawl. John read it, and a smile lit up his face.

“ I love you, John. You’re my literal favorite human being and you make me really happy.” Alex made sure to look at him straight in the eyes and not let his voice quiver.

“I love you too, Ham” Jesus, the smile on John’s face could literally blind somebody, it was so bright and beautiful. God he loved him. Alex set the coffee and brownies down and stood on his tippy toes, pulling John into a kiss. John hugged him close and deepened the kiss, for a moment before pulling away. They smiled brightly at each other until a bitingly cold wind cut through them. Ham shivered and reached for his coffee, hoping to gain some warmth in his hands from the cup. John leaned against the railing and drank his coffee, making a happy noise upon discovering his favorite coffee in the cardboard cup.

“Wanna go sit in on Washington’s freshman history class?”   
“Sure, I have nowhere to be until noon,”

“Excellent.”  

 

**Author's Note:**

> "je t'aime" french: i love u 
> 
> "Bonjour mes chers" french: hey/good day babes
> 
> "cher" french: (masc.) babe/my love/etc its a term of endearment basically
> 
> "Bon matin" french: good morning 
> 
> "le petit lion" french: the little lion , i forget where i found this but apparently a bunch of ppl during the revolution called him that bc he went to columbia and their mascot is the lion 
> 
> “yo también te amo, idiota, pero la próxima vez me vas a tener que decir en inglés - el mejor novio del mundo” : spanish: i love you too, idiot, but next time you have to tell me in english - the best boyfriend in the world 
> 
> u can correct me if i misspelled anything bc this isn't beta-d by anybody 
> 
> also i know ham is from nevis/st. croix but for the purpose of them knowing spanish i plopped ham into Puerto Rico like Lin's dad


End file.
